Tax on Art and Antiques

One of the benefits of wealth can be the acquisition and holding of art and antiques. Collections may be acquired in your lifetime or inherited within a family. They may range from old masters through to contemporary art, but you may be surprised to learn that you need an art accountant, and that tax may be due on the disposal or inheritance of such items.

Taxation of your collection

With each item, you need to be confident that the ownership of your art and antiques is held correctly either personally or through an asset holding structure. You will also be concerned about how to reduce your exposure to tax either on the acquisition or disposal of your art and antiques, or when passing an item on by way of an inheritance. There are several factors that can affect the kind and amount of tax you are obliged to pay including the intention behind your ownership of them (i.e. business, personal pleasure or to pass on as an inheritance) and the value of the item. Taxes that you may be liable for include VAT, Capital Gains Tax and/or Inheritance Tax.

Our experience extends to advising on the deferral and mitigation of capital taxes arising on a taxable event in respect of important and high value chattels. This can involve advising on the complex interaction of conditional exemption for Inheritance Tax and, in some rare cases, estate duty purposes together with the implications for Capital Gains Tax.

The approach of Ritchie Phillips has always been to provide advice which works both in the short and the long term as art and antiques are often an asset class passed from generation to generation.

If you are concerned about the taxation of art or antiques in your possession and how or if to keep, pass on our dispose of such assets, please get in touch to speak to one of our art accountants.